After months of discussion and drafting, H.R.7011, the Pandemic Risk Insurance Act of 2020 (PRIA) was introduced by Representative Carolyn Maloney and twenty co-sponsors on May 26, 2020. If passed as currently drafted, the Act would mandate that insurance companies offering business interruption insurance policies must cover losses incurred due to pandemics and it would establish a Pandemic Risk Reinsurance Program (PRRP) within the Department of the Treasury under which private insurance companies and the federal government would share the responsibility to pay claims for covered losses.

Moore & Van Allen PLLC is pleased to announce that Mary Katherine Stukes has joined the Firm’s Litigation Group. Stukes joined the Firm as a Member and will serve as the Co-Head of the Firm’s Environmental Practice. A highly regarded environmental lawyer, Stukes advises manufacturing, real estate, financial services, and commercial clients on environmental issues in all types of business transactions and represents a wide variety of clients in environmental litigation, permitting, regulatory compliance, and remediation issues.

Charlotte Corporate Member Mike Miller was quoted in the Charlotte Business Journal article titled, “North Carolina attorneys on what businesses should watch as PPP issues linger” which was published May 28. Small business owners, including those in Charlotte, scrambled to secure PPP funding as Covid-19 led to a wave of mandated closings. Businesses and their lenders were forced to move ahead quickly as limited guidance trickled in.

MVA firm Chairman Tom Mitchell has been quoted in a May 29 Mecklenburg County press release regarding the County’s toolkit designed to help a variety of area businesses reopen safely as the community moves through the Governor’s Stay Safer at Home Order Phase Two. The Business Leaders Roundtable group, of which Mitchell is a member, was created by Mecklenburg County Manager Dena R. Diorio. The toolkit is a more detailed follow-up to the first toolkit the group released during Phase One of the Governor's Order a few weeks ago.

For the last two months, the doors of millions of businesses and homes have been shuttered due to government mandated stay at home orders. Through it all, the individuals who have served on the front lines and in essential businesses have been required to risk exposure to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to continue to serve and keep those businesses running. Several North Carolina Representatives recently introduced H.B. 1057 – WC/COVID-19 Front Line Coverage/Funds, a bill that would amend North Carolina’s workers’ compensation law by creating a rebuttable presumption that first responders, healthcare workers, and workers in essential services who contract COVID-19 or another pandemic infection contracted the infection on the job.

Charlotte Estate ＆ Wealth Planning Associate Caitlin Horne presented at the ABA 32nd Annual RPTE National CLE Conference, The Virtual Experience 2020 on May 14. Horne joined the virtual panel discussion for the topic “Tax Planning for Closely-Held Business Interests Before a Liquidity Event.” This presentation discussed a range of tax planning strategies to raise with clients before a sale or IPO of a closely-held business.

A few weeks ago we were discussing what was believed to be the first COVID-19 lawsuit related to business interruption insurance and a handful of state legislative efforts to redefine the scope of coverage for businesses impacted by COVID-19. Now, dozens of lawsuits have been filed across the nation, including several class actions, and legislation is circulating at the federal (and international) level proposing to provide a backstop to private insurers who pay out to policy holders.

In just a few weeks, we have gone from discussing what was believed to be the first COVID-19 lawsuit related to business interruption insurance and a handful of state legislative efforts to redefine the scope of coverage for businesses impacted by COVID-19 to dozens of lawsuits filed across the nation, including several class actions, and legislation circulating at the federal (and international) level proposing to provide a backstop to private insurers who pay out to policy holders.